Those using IE7, Safari 3, Firefox 3.5 and their predecessors to view Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites will then lose some functions.

Eventually, it warned, these web services will stop working for those sticking with older browsers.

The move is part of a trend to stop the use of ageing browsers which can be insecure and not sophisticated enough to handle the latest web technologies.

Code malfunction
 
Statistics on browser versions gathered by StatCounter suggest about 17% need to change in the light of Google’s decision.

Google made its announcement in a blogpost saying its engineers were keen to make use of the latest capabilities in browsers, and that required support for HTML5 technology.

As a result, from 1 August, Google will only support what it calls “modern browsers”. By this it means the latest versions and major prior releases of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

As new versions of these are released, Google will get its web services working with that and then drop support for the third-oldest version.

Support in this sense means that Google will only do compatibility testing with more up-to-date browsers. It will make not test with older programmes and can make guarantees that web services will work with them.

Concluding the blogpost, Venkat Panchapakesan, vice president of engineering at Google, wrote: “These new browsers are more than just a modern convenience, they are a necessity for what the future holds.”

In mid-May, Mozilla, which oversees development of Firefox, kicked off a plan to get the 12 million or so people using version 3.5 of its browser to update.

It said it was “frustrated” with efforts to get people to upgrade and had taken a series of steps to force change.

It used pop-up screens, adverts, re-directs and updates to steer people towards more recent versions of Firefox.

Figures gathered by Mozilla suggest the campaign has had some success as the number of users on Firefox 3.5 has now dropped to about one million.

Microsoft’s campaign to stop people using Internet Explorer 6 is one of the longest running upgrade efforts.

The software giant has used its automatic update system to get newer versions of its browser out to many users.

However, many companies prefer not to use this system and that has meant IE6 clinging on in some firms and nations.

Globally about 11% of browsers are IE6, suggest figures compiled by Microsoft, and there is a wide variation around the world.

About 34% of Chinese net users are on IE6, as are 22.3% of South Koreans and 11.6% of Vietnamese people.

Source: BBC News

If exploited by a booby-trapped webpage the bug would allow attackers to take control of an unprotected computer.

Code to exploit the bug has already been published though Microsoft said it had no evidence it was currently being used by hi-tech criminals.

A workaround for the bug has been produced while Microsoft works on a permanent fix.

Code injection
 
The bug revolves around the way that IE manages a computer’s memory when processing Cascading Style Sheets – a widely used technology that defines the look and feel of pages on a website.

Hi-tech criminals have long known that they can exploit IE’s memory management to inject their own malicious code into the stream of instructions a computer processes as a browser is being used. In this way the criminals can get their own code running and hijack a PC.

Microsoft has produced updates that improves memory management but security researchers discovered that these protection systems are not used when some older parts of Windows are called upon.

In a statement Microsoft said it was “investigating” the bug and working on a permanent fix. In the meantime it recommended those concerned use a protection system known as the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit.

Installing and applying the toolkit may require Windows XP users to update the version of the operating system they are using. But even if they do that some of the protection it bestows on Windows 7 and Vista users will not be available.

“We’re currently unaware of any attacks trying to use the claimed vulnerability or of customer impact,” said Dave Forstrom, the director of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group, in a statement.

“As vulnerabilities go, this kind is the most serious as it allows remote execution of code,” said Rik Ferguson, senior security analyst at Trend Micro, “This means the attacker can run programs, such as malware, directly on the victim’s computer.”

He added: “It is highly reminiscent of a vulnerability at the same time two years ago which prompted several national governments to warn against using IE and to switch to an alternative browser.”

 Source: BBC

The number of applications provided through the ASP model is growing. Accordingly, there is a growing business of companies developing software for the ASP marketplace. What sorts of applications are being developed? As remotely-hosted applications can provide cost-effective access for businesses to unique software, many of the applications are designed to be of occasional use in terms of use. Others are geared towards using group connectivity provided by through the Internet to provide an application that is flexible.

ASP’s have created software programs to handle various business functions as materials management, human resources, financial management, and e-commerce transaction services.

The variety of solutions provided by ASP’s is vast. Many ASP’s are doing great business in meeting operational needs of companies across different industries and business functions. There are a number of technical and business issues currently addressed by ASP’s to develop and enhance system applications.

A major advantage for businesses in seeking ASP services is that they provide an opportunity to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. Companies can have access to a wider-range of software products with the possibility of paying less than an outright purchase through usage charges. This allows businesses to access applications that can service particular business needs so companies can focus on their core operations. Furthermore, ASP’s are developing new software that can provide business solutions to operating issues not previously addressed through PC-based software. ASP’s also remove many of the technical administrative and maintenance issues associated with software by providing real-time upgrades, remote hosting, remote dial in customer support and overall software management.

Web hosting companies are involved in the development of applications – however, many of the hosting companies serve to provide network management and serve the application remotely to users. In providing ASP-related services, these companies are essentially AIP’s (application infrastructure providers.)

For mainframe web hosting applications, ASP service providers are pioneering a new way to host and maintain business applications.

After graduating from The London School of Economics Cheo Ming Shen was inspired by the business opportunities the internet was providing in the West.

He decided to set up his own business in Asia, taking advantage of the region’s undeveloped online market.

Mr Cheo describes his general business idea simply: “I look for business opportunities that I think can work in the internet space, and then I go develop it, and then market it and sell it as a business.”

To date, Mr Cheo has launched four internet businesses in Singapore with his partner Timothy Tiah Ewe Tiam. Their first enterprise, Nuffnang, spotted the chance to put advertising in blank spaces on online blogs.

“In Asia, there are hundreds of thousands of blogs…it’s a fad that has taken off in such a way that…the West hasn’t seen,” he explains.

“This was a big chunk of internet space that wasn’t being monetised. It represented a huge audience collectively but nobody could… effectively put them together.”

Developing opportunities
 
Nuffnang acts as the middleman between advertisers and bloggers, putting them in contact with each other. Bloggers are paid per unique visitor and Nuffnang takes a cut.

The concept has proved popular. Nuffnang has now expanded to Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia.

Mr Cheo believes its success is due to the intimate relationship between the blog site and the reader which standard websites find hard to replicate: “The blogs are a very interactive medium so it’s a very personal medium as well… When somebody sees advertising… they’re more likely to click.”

Adaptation
 
Mr Cheo admits that his idea isn’t unique and that ‘big bang ideas’ are hard to produce. But he says that in business “ultimately, a lot of the ideas are always adaptations…you can’t just copy and paste”. Much of the process is ‘tweak it as you go along’.

Understanding your local market is key, particularly when it comes to advertising. “If you think that you’re going to put a fixed mould and you’re just going to apply it on to a particular country, I think you’re in for a rude shock,” he says.

He identifies this as the pivotal reason he chose Singapore to launch his business model instead of London.

“I understood that the opportunities in Asia were far greater…London is a very developed economy…it’s going to be very competitive to do it down there. But we have local knowledge so why not come back…and use the skills that we’ve learnt?”

He confesses that he is conscious of the risk from bigger companies who might decide to do something similar: “The big boys will have to fight tooth and nail with me to get into this marketplace because I know it. Even if I’m small, it just simply means that I am quick and agile. I am David and they are Goliath.”

Funding

Mr Cheo and Mr Tiah started up Nuffnang with funds from their savings. They were reluctant to borrow either from their family or the banks. For Mr Cheo, having time to shape and adapt your business idea is essential to its success, but money can often be the biggest barrier when starting out.

“I’ve learned that when you try to reinvent the wheel, it takes a very long time…for you to succeed, and in that time…you need a lot of funding,” he says.

Blogging in Asia is “a fad that has taken off in a way that the West hasn’t seen,” says Cheo Ming Shen Nuffnang became profitable within a year and allowed Mr Cheo and Mr Tiah to start their second venture: Jipaban, an online shopping mall. Now they head Netccentric, a company which houses all their online businesses.

They’ve been careful to fund their expansion into other ventures solely through the profits retained by the company.

Mr Cheo says he is fortunate to be able to do this and is wary of Singapore’s attempts to create more self-starting entrepreneurs through government grants. He believes they could deter genuine business models with scope for development.

Instead, he fears that the schemes have the potential to “cultivate a group of people who just come up with ideas…for funding and they think: with this funding I can run off my crazy ‘re-invent the wheel’ kind of ideas.”

‘Battle’
 
The key to successful entrepreneurship is preparation, according to Mr Cheo.

He likens it to warfare: “In battle, for example, you have to study the terrain, you have to study your enemy, the weapons they’re using…It’s exactly the same thing. Over here, you decide what it is you want to accomplish and you study the situation, study the terrain, study what’s going on…you will certainly have different configurations of processes and you just apply it.”

But Mr Cheo believes that ultimately, however, a healthy dose of luck is involved. “You need luck. It’s always about luck…I would say that it’s 49% you, 51% luck,” he says.

But this shouldn’t discourage budding entrepreneurs. The head of Netccentric says the key is to persevere.

“Find something that you think can make money, and make sure you run it through a couple of people but don’t drag your feet on it. Just do it…there is no better way of knowing if something will work than to actually try it out. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”.

 Source: BBC

What’s more, even when controlling for key socio-economic characteristics, the U.S. continues to confront a racial gap in residential broadband use, with non-Hispanic white Americans and Asian-Americans more likely to go online using a high-speed connection than African-Americans and Hispanics.

Those are some of the key conclusions of a new analysis of Census data being released Monday by the Commerce Department. It found that the percentage of households that connect to the Internet using broadband grew to 63.5 percent in 2009 from 9.2 percent in 2001, reflecting increases across nearly all demographics.

The report — prepared by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Economics and Statistics Administration — is based on a Census survey of about 54,000 households conducted in October 2009.

The new report provides some of the deepest analysis yet of broadband usage trends in the United States. And it is likely to help guide Congress and the Federal Communications Commission as they develop policies to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable high-speed Internet service.

The analysis, said Lawrence Strickling, head of the NTIA, shows that “there is no single solution” to make this happen.

Among the major findings:

• 94.1 percent of households with income exceeding $100,000 subscribed to broadband in 2009, compared with 35.8 percent of households with income of less than $25,000.

• 84.5 percent of households with at least one college degree subscribed to broadband last year, compared with 28.8 percent of households without a high school degree.

• 77.3 percent of Asian-American households and 68 percent of non-Hispanic white households subscribed to broadband last year, compared with 49.4 percent of African-American households and 47.9 percent of Hispanic households.

• 65.9 percent of urban households subscribed to broadband in 2009, compared with 51 percent of rural households.

Closing such gaps is a top priority for the FCC, which released a sweeping national broadband plan filled with policy proposals in March. The agency’s top recommendations include tapping the federal program that subsidizes telephone service for poor and rural Americans to pay for broadband, and unleashing more airwaves for wireless connections. Wireless broadband is seen as a particularly attractive option for bringing high-speed connections to rural areas that may be too sparsely populated to justify costly landline networks.

At the same time, the NTIA and the Rural Utilities Service, part of the Agriculture Department, have been handing out roughly $7 billion in stimulus money to pay for new broadband networks and programs to get more Americans online.

Strickling stressed that one key challenge for policymakers lies in convincing Americans who are not online of the benefits of broadband.

The Census data found that 38 percent of Americans who don’t have broadband at home say they don’t subscribe because they don’t need it, while 26 percent say it’s too expensive and only 4 percent say it’s not available where they live.

A survey conducted by the FCC last year reached many of the same conclusions. It found that 35 percent of Americans do not use broadband at home, including 22 percent of adults who do not use the Internet at all. Of that 35 percent, 36 percent say it is too expensive, while 19 percent do not see the Internet as relevant to their lives. Another 22 percent lack what the FCC calls “digital literacy” skills.

To try to change such attitudes, the stimulus program includes $250 million for projects to teach digital literacy skills and encourage broadband adoption, plus another $200 million for public computer centers.

One surprising finding of the new Commerce Department report is that African-Americans and Hispanics lag behind in broadband adoption even when controlling for factors such as income and education. The data show a gap of 10 percentage points in broadband use between whites and blacks and a gap of 14 percentage points between whites and Hispanics even after controlling for socio-economic factors.

Although the data do not provide an explanation for these numbers, Rebecca Blank, under secretary for Economic Affairs, believes it could reflect limited exposure to the Internet among certain racial groups.

“Internet usage relies on networks,” she said. “If the people around you don’t use the Internet, you will be less likely to use the Internet, too.”

But the latest announcement did have to do with mobile. Specifically, Facebook is shining up its mobile apps, making them more or less equal in features and abilities across the Android the iPhone platforms, and letting third-party developers get a taste of its mobile data and activity streams. All in all, the whole thing makes Facebook mobile act a little more like Facebook desktop.

One of the big new features is Deals, a new mobile commerce feature that trims the idea of mobile marketing down to the barest essentials a consumer would want to know: What exactly is on sale near the place I’m standing right now? Post your location by checking in to any given place, and a number of nearby businesses offering discounts will pop up on the screen. To get the discount, just walk over and show your phone.

There’s more: Facebook Connect will go mobile, you can now see Groups through the mobile apps, the Android version gets Places, and third parties will be able to drink from the mobile activity stream.

Even though the announcement was all about mobile, a Facebook app for iPad was not on the agenda, and when he was asked specifically about it, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed why: The iPad isn’t mobile, he said. It’s a computer.

The claim has ruffled more than a few feathers at T-Mobile competitors, namely Sprint Nextel, which has been helping its partner Clearwire build a nationwide network using a technology called WiMax that it claims is 4G.

Verizon Wireless is also building a “4G” network using a different technology called LTE or Long Term Evolution. It plans to launch this network in 38 markets by the end of the year.

So is T-Mobile’s network upgrade actually 4G? Technically, the answer is no. But it’s important to point out that neither is Sprint’s nor Verizon’s networks.

While current versions of WiMax and LTE are typically referred to in the industry as “4G,” they do not actually meet the International Telecommunications Union’s strict definition. The ITU, which is an agency within the United Nations, is the international standards body that officially designates wireless technologies as 1G, 2G, 3G and now 4G. Last month, the group certified future implementations of LTE and WiMax as 4G. But it did not certify current implementations of these technologies as 4G.

To be legitimately considered a 4G technology by the ITU, the agency requires the network technology be IP-based and use orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). The other main requirement is that the technology needs to support peak download speeds of 100Mbps. The current flavors of LTE and WiMax are not that fast. And neither does the technology T-Mobile is using, which is called HSPA+.

That said, the network upgrades that all four major wireless carriers have done have made their networks faster. Average 3G services offer between 700Kbps and 1.5Mbps. Sprint’s WiMax service, built by Clearwire, offers average download speeds around 6Mbps, the company has said. And Verizon claims that tests indicate it is getting download speeds between 6Mbps and 12Mbps on its pre-commercial LTE network. T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network also gives a significant boost with speeds between 3Mbps and 7Mbps.

It should be noted that AT&T, which plans to test LTE next year, has also upgraded its network to HSPA+. AT&T is not claiming that its upgrade is 4G. But it is the same technology T-Mobile is using, and it offers the same speedy downloads.

So what does this mean for consumers? Well, there is no doubt the marketing terms being thrown around are confusing. First and foremost, consumers should recognize that all four major wireless carriers are in the midst of upgrading their networks, and that all these next generation networks should provide comparable speeds.

But there are a few caveats that consumers should be aware of.

1. Current 3G phones on any operators network will not take full advantage of the new network upgrades. You will need a new phone that is WiMax compatible for Sprint, LTE compatible for Verizon, and HSPA+ compatible for either T-Mobile or AT&T. Sprint already sells two 3G/4G smartphones, the HTC Evo and the Samsung Epic. T-Mobile has just introduced two HSPA+ handsets, the HTC G2 and the HTC MyTouch. Neither AT&T nor Verizon have announced handsets that use their latest network technologies. Verizon has said it expects to have LTE handsets on the market by the end of the first quarter of 2010. AT&T has introduced a wireless laptop card, but hasn’t indicated when its HSPA+ handsets will hit store shelves.
2. Network performance is also affected by multiple factors, in addition to network technology. The upgrades boasted by carriers will no doubt boost performance for new devices. But how much of that is felt by consumers depends on lots of factors, including how loaded the networks are. Wireless is a shared medium, so the more users sharing the resource, the less bandwidth is available for individual users.
3. Network coverage is also a major factor that consumers need to consider. If you have a “4G” phone, it will only get the full benefit of that fast network if you are using it in area where there is 4G coverage. Otherwise, the phone falls back to the older generation technology. Sprint (via Clearwire) and Verizon Wireless are building new networks using new technologies. So it will take them a little while to build the networks to meet their current 3G footprint. Clearwire, which is building the WiMax network Sprint is using, is in over 55 markets today and is adding more each week. Its goal is to reach 120 million potential customers by the end of 2010. Verizon plans to be in 38 markets across the country and offer service to 110 million potential customers by the end of 2010. And within three years it will be everywhere its 3G service is available today, covering 285 million potential customers. T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network is in 65 metro areas today and is available to 120 million potential customers. And by the end of 2010, the company has said it will be available in 100 markets to more than 200 million potential customers. AT&T’s HSPA+ network will reach 250 million customers by the end of the year and will be available everywhere its current 3G service is available. So in terms of coverage, AT&T will have the largest, fastest wireless network in the U.S. this year, regardless of whether you call it 4G or 3G.

T-Mobile’s claims of the “Fastest 4G network in America” come as wireless operators try to one-up each other to win new subscribers. In an era, where U.S. mobile phone penetration is nearly 100 percent, claims of faster networks and hot new devices are what carrier marketing teams use to set themselves apart from the competition.

Previously, operators may have competed on price or network reliability, but today they are competing on speed and cool devices. This trend is largely driven by consumers’ appetite for smartphones, which are data hungry devices.

There is no question that wireless operators are playing fast and loose with their marketing claims. And it’s likely that the advertising wars will only get noisier, which will make it even more confusing for consumers to decide which device and which carrier is best for them.

Source: Cnet News

Google today settled the class action lawsuit it earned when it launched Google Buzz without any privacy controls.  Google Buzz is a social networking tool similar to Twitter that allows users to share information with their connections.  In order to jumpstart users’ social graph, Buzz users were automatically, and publicly, linked to people they often Gmail-ed with.  That made for some embarrassing connections.

Google (GOOG) settled for  $8.5 million, most of which will go to fund organizations focused on Internet privacy education and policy.  The rest will likely cover court costs, legal fees and overhead.

“We are satisfied with the agreement and are glad to move forward,” said a Google (GOOG) spokesperson. “We have always been committed to offering users transparency and choice in Buzz and all our products, and will continue to work together with users to provide the best experience possible.”

Press release follows:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov 02, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — On October 7, 2010, federal district court Judge James Ware preliminarily approved a class action settlement related to the launch of Google Buzz last February. The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed by Gmail users who alleged that Buzz’s launch violated their privacy.

“We are satisfied with the agreement and are glad to move forward,” said a Google spokesperson. “We have always been committed to offering users transparency and choice in Buzz and all our products, and will continue to work together with users to provide the best experience possible.”

Immediately following the Buzz launch in February of this year, Google moved quickly to make significant product improvements including increased visibility, an updated start up process featuring auto-suggestions, and adding Buzz to the Google Dashboard. In April, Google rolled out a “second chance” encouraging Buzz users to check and verify their privacy settings.

The settlement agreement acknowledges the important changes Google has made to Buzz. As part of the settlement agreement, Google will create an $8.5 million fund, the majority of which will go to organizations focused on Internet privacy education and policy, and will make additional efforts to educate users about the privacy aspects of Buzz.

Gary E. Mason, counsel for the plaintiffs in the litigation, said, “We feel this settlement has many benefits to class members, including providing a significant amount of money to non-profit groups committed to educating users about Internet privacy and ensuring that Buzz users can join this on-line community without compromising their privacy.”

The Court will consider final approval of the proposed settlement on January 31, 2011. Full details on the settlement are available at www.BuzzClassAction.com.

Source: CNN News

And if you blinked, you missed Microsoft’s most recent attempt to bring out something more hip in mobile: In late June, Microsoft pulled the plug on the oddly timed, youth-oriented Kin handsets. That’s less than two months after they first went on sale, and several months ahead of the anticipated Windows Phone 7 launch.

The first Windows Phone 7 handsets go on sale in the U.S. on Monday. Microsoft basically built the new mobile platform from the ground up, ditching most of what came before. It’s a bold strategy that keeps Microsoft alive, even as it plays catch-up.
While there’s a lot to admire in Windows Phone 7, starting with a spanking new and intuitive screen design, some missing features will leave you wanting, and leave Microsoft swimming upstream.

I’ve been testing the new software on three upcoming touch-screen devices, each $200 with the customary two-year service plan: the HTC HD7 from T-Mobile, and the HTC Surround and Samsung Focus, both from AT&T. Nine phones, including some scheduled for international markets, are promised as part of the initial wave. But the real story here is the software.

Microsoft has 3% of the U.S. smartphone market, trailing Android (about 44%), iPhone (26%) and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry (24%), according to third-quarter data by the Canalys research firm.

The pressure is on to get it right, and with its fresh approach, Microsoft darn near pulls it off.

The emphasis is on “darn near.”

Fortunately, some of the glaring omissions can be addressed in future software updates. For now, you’ll have to wait until the first half of 2011 for a copy-and-paste feature that’s now standard on rival smartphones. You can view the calendar by day of the week or month, but not by week.

You can’t run applications from outside developers at the same time you’re doing something else, so forget about listening, say, to an Internet radio app such as Slacker in the background while simultaneously browsing the Web. But you can hear the songs you own through Microsoft’s built-in Zune player.

There are inconsistencies in when you can rotate the display so that the screen appears in vertical or horizontal mode. The otherwise very good mobile Web browser (yes, it’s Internet Explorer) can’t do Adobe Flash video or the HTML5 video format that the new PC version of IE9 embraces.

Microsoft has a mere fraction of the third-party apps that competitors have — roughly 1,000 or so at launch, compared with 100,000 for Android and about 300,000 for the iPhone. What’s more, none of the initial Windows Phone 7 devices come with a second front-facing camera that would let you engage in video chat, as is possible on the iPhone 4 and some Android handsets. Visual voice mail also makes the “Oops, we left it off” list. There are no custom ring tones, either.

Now, for the good news

All that said, Microsoft gets a lot right, from a decent onscreen keyboard to that good browsing experience to a ground-breaking user interface.

As it attempts to reverse its sagging fortunes in mobile, Microsoft is calling the shots with partners as never before. Windows Phone 7 devices have minimum hardware requirements built around robust Qualcomm processors, decent screens and at least 8 gigabytes of flash memory. Every phone has GPS, an accelerometer, compass and other modern sensors. The devices have FM radios, and all the handsets have dedicated start, search (leading to Bing) and back buttons.

Phone makers have the freedom to apply their own touches. On the AT&T devices, for example, you can access AT&T’s U-verse Mobile TV subscription service. T-Mobile TV (some of which is free) is available on that company’s handset.

As you’d expect, Windows Phones also tap into Microsoft’s own stable, so the mobile versions of Office, IE, Bing, Zune and Xbox Live appear to mostly positive effects.

Here’s a closer look:

•A fresh Start. In lieu of the orderly rows and pages of icons you’d see, say, on the iPhone, Microsoft’s appealing new Start screen is built around tiles that you tap to launch apps and Web pages, to speed-dial contacts or to take you to so-called hubs. Separate People and Picture hubs are tied in with Facebook. A Music & Videos hub is connected to Zune. A Games hub goes with Xbox Live, and the Office hub has mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

The idea behind tiles and hubs is that you can quickly see things at a glance, even before you launch anything. You’ll see the number of app updates that are available in the Marketplace store hub or the number of voice mails, text messages and e-mails that have come in other hubs and tiles.

The dynamic People hub tile is populated with ever-changing thumbnail images of friends.

You can pin your own tiles to the Start screen but can’t otherwise organize disparate apps into folders as you can on rival devices. Adding too many tiles to Start can clutter things up, so I’d recommend doing so judiciously lest you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the screen to see what’s there.

But you can easily find any app or setting on the phone by swiping your finger or tapping an arrow that takes you to a convenient alphabetical master list of all your programs.

Microsoft believes in presenting information wherever it makes sense, so even from the lock screen that appears when you first wake up the device, you’ll find notifications for new voice mails, texts and e-mails, in addition to the date, time and whatever pretty picture you choose as wallpaper. It’s a nice touch.

•Inside apps. When you open apps, you’ll notice that not all the headings or picture thumbnails fit on a single screen. This is reminiscent of Zune, and it’s an aesthetic decision that largely works. For example, in the Marketplace app store, the only heading you’ll see (in large letters) is the m.a.r.k.e. and only part of the t. This design has the subtle effect of suggesting there’s more to see if you flick the page with your finger. Microsoft takes this visual cue to the next step; you’ll see just the bare edges of the content on the next page, again reminding you that a flick of the finger will reveal more to see.

Tapping on the People hub brings up a consolidated view of your contacts, and your Facebook and Windows Live friends in one long scrollable list. That’s good or bad depending on your perspective. I wish you could more easily segregate friends from one social network or the other, or just, say, your contacts from work.

You can do a search from within the People hub to find a pal. But the phone lacks a universal search feature, found on other devices, that would let you find people even from outside the hub.

Tapping on a person’s name lets you check out their recent status updates from Facebook and Windows Live but not Twitter, a curious lapse. (You can download a separate Twitter app.) From within a contact, you can tap to write on the person’s Facebook wall, map their address, or do more conventional things such as texting or calling.

•Clever camera. How many times have you reached into your pocket to take a picture with your phone only to have the moment pass because it took too long to unlock the screen and fire up the camera app? Microsoft has an answer for this all-too-common occurrence: Windows Phones have a dedicated camera button. Press and hold it for a second or so, and the camera app launches, even if the phone was locked. You’re ready to snap a picture. You can arrange it so that pictures you take from the camera are automatically uploaded to Microsoft’s SkyDrive online locker.

•Entertainment. I’ve always liked the Zune music and video players, even though few people bought them. You get Zune inside Windows Phone 7, and if you subscribe to Zune Pass ($15 a month), you can listen on the fly to just about any song that Microsoft has stored in the cloud.

Incidentally, through a software app still in beta testing, you can sync your phone with iTunes on the Mac. Through Zune, you can sync your Windows iTunes catalog, as well, on music that isn’t saddled with digital rights management (DRM) protections.

If you’ve got an Xbox Live account, you can summon your cartoon avatar, play multiplayer games and display scores. Microsoft also lets you sample a bunch of games via Xbox Live on the phone.

•Office and work. Windows Phones are aimed at consumers, but of course Windows Mobile has a heritage in the business environment. Along those lines, Microsoft is exploiting its own mobile Office app, but the truth is, there’s nothing unique about that among smartphone makers. Competitors also work with Office through third-party software. On Windows Phones, you can create Word documents and Excel spreadsheets but not PowerPoints. You can also jot notes in the OneNote app, then sync them through SkyDrive. If you have access to a corporate Microsoft SharePoint service, you can also link Office documents to that online repository.

Of course, the phones make nice with Microsoft Exchange e-mail, but so do all major smartphone rivals. It’s easy to set up other e-mail accounts on Windows Phone, including Gmail and Yahoo. But for now, there’s no universal inbox that would let you view all your e-mail accounts at the same time.

Windows Phone 7 isn’t fully baked yet, but at least there’s a very pleasing aroma coming from the oven. Microsoft has the resources to keep on cooking, and I expect and hope they will, unlike what happened with Kin. In an ever-changing environment, Microsoft may still provide some appetizing possibilities in mobile.

Source: USA Today

SCVNGR’s a social game based on geo-location that lets players link up with friends on Facebook and Twitter.

The game’s simple — players check in to different spots, such as stores and public places, complete challenges and earn points. They get real-world rewards such as discounts on purchases.

In order to take its game world-wide, SCVNGR needed new technologies, so it enlisted the help of the Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Places API. In addition, Google Ventures led a consortium to raise a second round of funding worth US$4 million for SCVNGR earlier this year.

Neither SCVNGR nor Google responded to requests for comment by press time.
SCVNGR’s Guts

The SCVNGR game is location-based. It uses global positioning systems (GPS) and databases of destinations to automatically serve up players’ locations.

Previously, SCVNGR reportedly used geolocation services from Mixer Labs’ GeoAPI, but that was focused on companies in the United States.

SCVNGR switched over to Google Places in order to go global.

Players create and complete challenges tied to their locations. They get points for completing their challenges, which they can redeem at about 12,000 locations for real products and gifts or discounts. They can also complete and build challenges.

SCVNGR’s default interface is in English, but content can be added in any language.

A free app for the iPhone and Android phones was released Tuesday with SCVNGR 3.5.

SCVNGR 3.5 has a new dashboard layout. It lets players comment on friends’ activities in real-time or give them an extra point for doing something. The “Social Map” feature lets players geolocate their friends. SCVNGR 3.5 has a new activity, Stream, which groups activities into visits to show players where their friends are and what they are doing.
The Power of Mobile Marketing

For a fee, enterprises and organizations get their locations placed in the game. SCVNGR’s website claims about 1,000 companies and organizations in 20 countries have signed on as customers. They include Princeton University and the Smithsonian Institute. Another is Journeys, which markets to teenagers.

SCVNGR isn’t alone in offering location-based services. Twitter added geolocation to its services and is offering up ads in the Tweet stream; Foursquare and Gowalla have been letting consumers track friends’ whereabouts and earn rewards for going to brick-and-mortar businesses for some time.

However, SCVNGR’s possibly the only one that’s going worldwide. One of the markets in which it plans to have a presence is China, although its ties with Google might hinder rather than help it there given the strained relations between China and Google.

“It might be very challenging for them to go into China, but hopefully they have a plan,” Laura DiDio, principal at ITIC, told TechNewsWorld. “Still, we don’t know if there’s anything in China right now that rivals SCVNGR.”

SCVNGR has raised about $5 million in all, with a consortium led by Google Ventures kicking in about $4 million in the second round in January.
Marketing Is a Dicey Business

However, competition may impede SCVNGR’s potential as a marketing tool.

“Games like this could become yet another marketing tool for business, but the question is, how many will the market sustain?” asked Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. “This may not scale to many firms, but a few games could easily capture the imaginations of enough people to make the model viable for the most popular of them.”

Still, SCVNGR could make some decent money, at least in the short term.

“This is potentially a better way to engage people than many of the more traditional methods because it builds the marketing into what the user does instead of making it a distraction as most marketing programs do,” Enderle told TechNewsWorld. “So the engagement is potentially higher and the value to the advertiser is potentially greater as well.”

Further, it’s difficult to predict consumer demand.

“Kids may love this one, but it’s hard to guess what will go viral,” Enderle said.

Take “Farmville,” for example. It was highly popular at one time, but seems to have lost some mindshare.